Ex-Crossrail chair quits race for 2012 legacy post

Former Crossrail chair Adrian Montague is understood to have dropped out of the running to chair the body driving the development of the Olympic park after the 2012 Games

An announcement on the post is due imminently and sources said former English Partnerships chair Baroness Ford was the frontrunner.

Sources close to the process suggested that Montague, who was championed by business lobby group London First, had dropped out of the running.

The chair of the organisation will report to Olympics minister Tessa Jowell and London mayor Boris Johnson.

The two were to hold a final interview of the two remaining candidates on Wednesday, as Building was going to press.

The special purpose vehicle that will oversee the regeneration of Olympic lands after the Games is due to begin work in April. It is hoped that the former park will provide space for 10,000 homes and generate 10,000 jobs.

The body will be privately run and will not own land or assume public planning powers.

As well as Baroness Ford, Labour peer Lord Hollick is rumoured to be in the running for the post. Lord Hollick was until 2005 the chief executive of Building’s publisher, United Business Media.